CFPB Is Weaker, And Head Kathy Kraninger Is To Blame, According To Maxine Waters

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has come under fire by Maxine Waters, who has blamed its head Kathy Kraninger of weakening it.
• Waters has argued that recent actions taken by Kraninger have undermined the role of the CFPB and exposed many consumers to predatory creditors.

In recent remarks that have been made by Maxine Waters, the Chairman of the Financial Services House Committee in the US, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) head Kathy Kraninger has been rebuked for providing misguided leadership to the Bureau and undermining its role of protecting consumers against abusive practices as well as products by predatory creditors.

The remarks were delivered by Waters at a committee hearing focused on discussing the semi-annual review of the CFPB, whereby the committee wanted to evaluate whether the bureau was protecting credit consumers or allowing abuse to happen against them.

According to Waters, the leadership style of Kraninger and actions taken thereof had weakened the CFPB’s role of protecting consumers against predatory lending practices. Waters also referred to the way Kraninger had weakened the position taken by the Dodd-Frank Act, whereby lenders were effectively disallowed from conducting unfair/abusive practices, making it difficult for the CFPB to perform its duties of ensuring protection for consumers.

Waters said that the head of the CFPB Kraninger had kept the interests of predatory lenders ahead of vulnerable credit consumers, and also said that this was consistent with Kraninger’s past actions and priorities.

In her remarks, Waters highlighted the policies implemented by the CFPB that were causing harm, such as the limiting of a rule that governed predatory payday lenders and the introduction of a new rule for debt collection that clearly favored collectors of debt.

Another issue that was highlighted by Waters in her remarks was the undue leniency allowed in the reporting requirements as laid out in the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, whereby discriminatory as well as redlining lending practices could now go unnoticed.

She also highlighted the fact that the CFPB was created by Congress to protect America against the devastating impact as witnessed in the 2008 fiscal crises, and it must do its job to offer adequate protection against the same.